[Editor's Note: This news item is actually several days old now, but due to technical difficulties it could not be posted earlier... it's good stuff though... read it]

Do you know what it's like to feel free? I mean really free... I do. In the last 48 hours I've experienced something akin to being set free from slavery... or witnessing the end of WWII... something even illustrative of God having set us free from sin through Jesus. Let me then give a narrative of how things went down.

Tuesday around 12:30 i left Madison on the beltline, bound for E-town. My cd player was on the fritz, so I was stuck surfing through the various radio stations... particularly the period when I was outside of Madison but before I got to chi-town. I got down at around 4:00, having hit just the hint of a traffic jam on the stretch of I-94 before the Skokie Rd. exit. I met Carl in the library's basement computer lab. It was a very surreal experience being back on campus. I did some various internet related things in the lab, and then Andrew came in and the three of us went to Chipotle for dinner. Then I was off to class.

I got to the classroom at Kresge about 15 minutes before class started, and two girls were already there. For a few seconds I was overcome by an irrational fear that the entirety of the 16 students in the class besides myself would be girls... yes, a little 3rd grade I know, but... I was probably looking for any reason to feel awkward. My fear was not eased when the next three people to enter the room were female, but things evened out as class time approached. The prof came in, syllabi were distributed, the standard first day of class stuff was discussed. The lights were dimmed, and three hours of slides plus lecture were administered. Now... it actually wasn't as bad as I would have imagined an art history lecture to be. We looked at late 18th century American art... I actually saw a few pieces that I knew from history texts... particularly the one of General Wolfe dying at the battle of Quebec. I was interested... but... three hours is an awful long time to be lectured to in a dark room... I wasn't looking forward to seven more weeks of this, plus a midterm, final, class presentation, and 2500 word paper.

After class got out, I headed off towards downtown Evanston, looking for a place to stay. I hoped to hook up with either Hunsucker or Leon. I went to the Carlson building, and after first going into the wrong entrance, I ended up staring blankly at the phone list in the lobby. I knew that Jeremy was supposed to be on the top floor, but I didn't want to call someone else by mistake... and the numbers didn't even seem to correspond to actual room numbers or floor location. So... it was off to Leon's. Went down to the blue whale... called up... couldn't reach him. Hmmm... Back to the library... what I didn't realize was that the library closed at 10 during the summer. Ran into Anshu just north of University... said that the library was about to close. Thankfully I was able to get the gal at the front desk to PH someone for me.... who was it to be? John... I was just hoping that he had his phone hooked up. Thankfully the PH address was the DU house, so I assumed the phone number was accurate as well.

Picked up the car from the south lot, drove to the Kemper lot... so surreal... yeah... really surreal... knowing that I could no longer just walk in... seeing the lobby lights dimmed... the virtually empty parking lot... whew... bizarre. Anyhow, called John... he picked up, and I asked if he had room at his place. He said no, and when I saw the place I believed him. However, he did have his computer set up, and I was able to PH some more folks. Called Leon's cell, and only got voicemail. John offered me some lemonade... best lemonade I've EVER had... I was so hot and dehydrated after the long day of class etc. I decided that it was time to call Toyama. He had just woke up... hmmmm... yeah, ponder that one a second... it was about 10:30 in the evening by now... ok now that you've absorbed that, on with the story :-)

He said I could stay over, so off I drove, after receiving a squirtgun from John. The Toyamas were gracious hosts as always... I walk into the kitchen and am offered a 2 inch thick slice of watermelon, a glass of iced tea, and a croissant and egg salad sandwich. I wished to decline, but I was quite grateful for the food and especially the watermelon and tea... as I still felt parched. Although we were in the kitchen of the Toyama household it seemed strangely like Kemper... some random night from the past two years... Fox on the Tv... Seinfeld... Third Rock... Frasier... providing the background for Toyama making curry paste, and a bit of conversation.

I went to sleep on the most comfortable mat in the world in the Toyama's TV room. I slept soundly. I woke a little before Mr. Toyama came in to wake me, and was treated to a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and orange juice by Mrs. Toyama. Took a shower, packed my things, didn't say goodbye to Brandon since he was still asleep. The plan was to go to financial aid and see if I could get any help for the summer, then hit up the registrar and register for the class, swing by the library for any more internet related things I needed to do, and then be out of town by around 11 and back home to help the folks by 2.

Well, the financial aid office gave me about the help I expected... the possibility of a loan. Saw some departing tours of prospies. Weird feeling again. Anyhow, got to the registrar without a hitch. Filled out the add form... didn't have to pay at that time as I had thought from reading the website... so that was nice. Then it was off to the library... my last few minutes in E-Town till next week.

I went in and sat down at the north wall... Checked my email...

...
used telnet by mistake...
...
don't know telnet commands...
...
ahhh... load up webemail...
...

...

...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO WAY!!!!!
NO F*CKING WAY!!!!
NO....
OH MY GOD!!!
THANK YOU!!!!

All the above was going through my mind, but I was completely silent. The most recent email in my inbox, and hence the one that I read first was from some lady at the registrar's office... she said that Dean Linzer had seen my situation and approved a substitution for my last distribution requirement.

I booked it to the registrar's office!

I spoke to the woman... it was legit... I got the nice lady at the desk to cancel my registration and also save me the 25 dollar drop fee...

I stepped out of the registrar's office...

Free...

FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I literally skipped down the stairs there next to Rebecca Crowne.

I saw some other folks like Sharon, and Jeremy, and Colin around... I think I told them all my story.

I'm done.

I'm... really done.

I got in my car... it was time to leave...

Sheridan... Lake... Skokie Road entrance... I-94... toll booth... Oasis... toll booth... state line...

I think that I was spontaneously breaking into half laughing half crying every five minutes while thanking God for what he had done...

I stopped at a Mobile to fill up and I called Di. I think I said "Hi" and then just said "I'm done". She didn't get it at first. I repeated "I'm done." Then she got it... we were both pretty happy!

Yeah... so... that's basically the story...

And now... I'm done.

Family came today... my family... everyone's family... graduation ceremony at the football field... nice weather... sat between Leon and Brandon... saw people afterwards... walked back to campus with Di and talked... avoided taking the diagonal to reduce mosquitoe threat... broke snowman pinata...

At least I can still type... it's hard to talk with such a big knot in your throat....

I don't really want to be throwing a pity party for myself right now, but I don't seem able to stop myself.
So... if I'm an ass for the next 24-48, please consider cutting me some slack.

Oh, and Carl and Cliff if you read this... can I stay over at your place on tuesday nights for the next 7 weeks?

I was thinking about it today... it really doesn't seem like I'm graduating.... the fact that In less than a week's time I will be in a completely different place... completely different schedule... in less than a month I will be working... and here I am oblivious to it.

In order to combat this just a little, I'm going to write down what I've been doing... for memory's sake.

Basically all I can remember at the moment is yesterday night. I went to pick up Di from the ATM down south since she was coming back from 2nd City. Came back home, Brandon had the beer boiling in a pot and we cooked brats... boiled then GF'd. We also had Krunchers and various deli salads from the supermarket. The ladies and the guys watched "Good Will Hunting". We kinda broke up early. It wasn't really that much of an evening... somewhat anti-climactic actually.

Oh that's right.. the night before I went over to 220 to play scatagories with Di as a partner. Ended up playing poker afterwards. I must confess, despite the fact that Matt and Christina were the only other couple there, I had a terrifying premonition of domestic life and dinner parties. Ugh... seriously... I never want to lose my friends... I never want to be "friends" with a "couple"... gah!!! Yeah, anyhow despite that fightening moment the evening was pretty fun.

I really wonder... can I somehow grow up without becoming to much of a grown-up? Is it possible to buck the trend? Can I be a responsible member of society... potentially a responsible husband and parent without adopting all of the conventions of "adult" society? I really hope so...

Odds of me graduating on time just went up 99%.

Have you ever felt like hugging someone and then punching them? Or punching them and then hugging them....

All I have to say is that there will be a story that makes God look pretty good up here after finals are all done.

Woohoo!! I got an email from Professor Zwiebel today offering me a job down at Vanderbilt! I'm rather excited. It really looks like a good opportunity. I'm still going to go visit Duke I believe, but... I think this may be the position for me...

In other not so positive news, evidently my other DIMM of RAM decided to die on me... what the heck?! That's two DIMMS of Crucial RAM that have died on me... Crucial is supposed to be good stuff... I'm beginning to wonder if there is something wrong with the way my system is set up that would cause this problem... Karthik did mention something about the sticker that was on the DIMM... maybe they were just overheating... I dunno. I was going to go to Best Buy to pick up another DIMM but then I noticed that Newegg.com had two Crucial 512 mb PC2700 DIMMs for the same price (with overnight shipping) as a single 512 mb DIMM from kingston @ bestbuy. So... I think perhaps I will just wait it out and get the new RAM online... meanwhile Ben has been kind enough to let me borrow his computer while I work on my paper for Roman Civ.

Wow... this blogger thing is somewhat nice... I'm updating from a computer in the middle of the stacks in the library... never would have bothered to do that under the old news system. Now if I can only figure out how to add alt text... let's see here can you see THIS??

Anyhow, I had a very good interview with Professor Zwiebel today. He liked the sound of me, and I liked the sound of his lab. I would likely get to do lots of independent research in addition to any lab maintenence I would have to do. The only weird thing is... there's evidently another "Patrick Martin" applying for work at the same lab!!

Ok, back to the Romans...

I have an interview with Professor Zweibel from Vanderbilt in just a few minutes. I just read 1 John... it was somewhat interesting... although... it really didn't have anything to say about interviews. However, I also talked with my mom earlier this morning, and I know she is praying for me... things are going to work out... we'll just see how.

Oh yeah, and here's a question I wanted to ask everyone: How will individuals address one another in heaven? (I guess the unstated assumption is that we will have personal relationships with people outside of the trinity, but that seems reasonable considering the length to which God goes to ensure we treat other people in a loving manner.) I guess the question is, will we have names, and if so what names will they be? Will we be existing for all eternity with the names that our parents gave us (my condolences to anyone named Dylan)? Will God himself give us some new name? Do we already have some name that God has given us of which we are not aware? I guess on one hand this is not a really important question but on the other hand it's rather interesting to speculate....

Hello ladies and gents!

As part of my impending departure from NU, I've begun to prepare for no longer having a pubweb account. The bulk of the site will end up on geocities, but I figured as long as I'm switching things over, I might as well put my news section on blogger... if only to allow for easier updates.

So... welcome. Make yourself at home here.